Overview

Consumer-price inflation in the euro area rose to 4% in June, according to a provisional estimate, well adrift of the central bank's target ceiling of 2%. The euro zone's unemployment rate was stable, at 7.2% in May. The jobless rate in France edged down to 7.4%; in Spain it rose from 9.6% to 9.9%. Ireland's GDP fell by 1.5% in the year to the first quarter.

American manufacturing perked up in June, according to the Institute for Supply Management. Its index rose from 49.6 to 50.2.

Britain's housing bust is deepening. The number of mortgages approved for house purchase plunged to 42,000 in May, below the nadir of the early 1990s and a 64% drop from May 2007. House prices fell for the eighth month in a row in June, according to Nationwide, a mortgage lender, leaving them 6.3% lower than a year earlier. Meanwhile, the June survey of purchasing managers revealed that activity in British manufacturing was at its weakest since December 2001.

Turkey's GDP rose by 6.6% in the year to first quarter, stronger than most forecasts.

Australia's central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged, at 7.25%, at its meeting on July 1st.

Business confidence in Japan is still ebbing, according the central bank's quarterly Tankan survey. The percentage balance of large manufacturers reporting “favourable” over “unfavourable” conditions fell from 11 in March to five in June, nearly a five-year low.